I WANT IT DARKER

Like Michelangelo Signorile, I think it's good that Democrats are trying to put Republicans on the defensive on the subject of Senator Rick Scott's proposed party agenda:

I was delighted to see that the Democratic National Committee is running digital ads that link to the website GOPTaxHike.com and pop up when late tax filers do searches online seeking help. The DNC site brings attention to Florida Senator Rick Scott’s insane 11-point plan that he says is the Republican agenda if the GOP takes the Senate....

It includes raising taxes on low and moderate income Americans — 100 million people — because they should have “skin the game,” and calls for sunsetting Social Security and Medicare within five years. And there’s so much more that is radical. This is a gift from heaven for Democrats — even Mitch McConnell is freaking out! — and digital ads should be just the beginning.

“The party of raising taxes on the middle class.” Every Democrat should be shouting about it on TV appearances, where ads should airing in addition to radio and online. And that should happen every single day from now until the mid-terms.

Sure, that's a good message, and the pop-up ads are fairly good.

But that GOPTaxHike.com site ... it's terrible.

Sure, when you run your cursor on the questions, you're told that each group would see a tax increase under the Scott plan. But what's with the cheery look of the page? The white background? The smiling faces in some of the photos?

That's not how you do an attack ad! An attack ad needs to be unsettling. It should convey a sense of doom.

Say this for Republicans: They know how to do an attack ad.



And this:



Democrats used to know how to do it:




The first Obama ad above makes you feel the anxiety; the second one makes you feel the worker's pain. The GOP Tax Hike site makes you feel nothing.

Signorile says that Democrats should be attacking Republicans on many issues -- their state abortion crackdowns, their admiration for Vladimir Putin, the large number of party members who've committed sex crimes or engaged in electoral fraud. I agree. But first Democrats have to learn -- or re-learn -- how to reach voters on a gut level. The Rick Scott plan would lead to real economic suffering for ordinary Americans. C'mon, Democrats -- make us feel that.